1000 Paper Cranes for Sadako
by Rosario Kyle
Summary: "Third floor, second room on the right," Kiku Honda chanted as he walked up the steps in the hospital. No one was there when he entered the room just as planned. The small girl in the hospital bed stopped what she was doing when she saw him. She smiled.


"_Third floor, second room on the right," _Kiku Honda chanted as he walked up the steps in the hospital. No one was there when he entered the room just as planned. The small girl in the hospital bed stopped what she was doing when she saw him.

"Kiku-san," Sadako Sasaki smiled. "It's nice to see you."

"Likewise, Sadako-chan," Kiku sat in a chair beside her hospital bed. "I have a legend to tell you."

Sadako's face lit up, "What about?"

"It is short. Just that any who folds one-thousand paper cranes will get one wish. The wish could be for anything including to cure your sickness," Kiku smiled.

"Is that what the crane meant?" Sadako asked. Kiku tilted his head. "My friend brought in a golden, paper crane but didn't say what it meant."

Kiku nodded, "Hai, Sadako-chan."

"I'll get started right away!" She smiled but then realized she had no paper. "I don't have any paper."

Kiku handed her a deck of paper squares and a pair of scissors. "This is all you will need to make the first twenty or so, after that it is your job to find paper," He smiled. "but, I will try to bring you paper when I can."

Sadako went straight to work with Kiku helping when necessary. When her family arrived, Kiku patted the girl's long, straight, black hair and left the room. Her family stared at him as he walked down the hallway at a brisk pace. He nodded politely at some nurses and doctors and didn't stop until he was at least a mile from the hospital.

He was breathing heavy and leaning against a wall. His civilian clothes were dirty but he didn't care. "I'm such a failure," Kiku sighed. "Its my fault she is in there."

The walk back to his home took longer than expected. Feliciano Vargas and Ludwig Bieschmeldt were already at his house waiting. "Kiku! Where have you been? We've been waiting forever!" Feliciano cried out.

"I'm sorry. I was trying to fix something," Kiku nodded.

"Well, why did you invite us over?" Ludwig asked.

"I just wanted to see my friends," Kiku stated. Feliciano jumped up and hugged the Japanese man.

"I knew you still liked us!" He cried out and clutched Kiku tightly to his chest. Kiku started to stutter.

The next Kiku visited Sadako was about October 15, 1955. Feliciano went with him so Kiku instructed him to wait in the hallway. He listened so Kiku walked into the room but stopped. Her left leg was uncovered. It was swollen and purple. She looked over at Kiku and smiled, "Kiku-san, you're back."

"Sorry, it took so long," Kiku tried to smile but the girl's condition appalled him. "My friends are visiting so I haven't been able to get away."

Sadako laughed, "Who's that?" Kiku turned around and saw Feliciano peeking around the door frame. He quickly ducked back to where he was before.

"That is my friend Feliciano Vargas," Kiku sighed.

"He has such a strange name!" Sadako smiled.

"Well, he is from Italy," Kiku smiled at the twelve year-old girl. "Do you want to meet him?"

"Yes!" She exclaimed. Feliciano peeked around the door frame again and entered the room.

"Feliciano this is Sadako-chan," Kiku motioned to them when he said their names. "Sadako-chan this is Feliciano."

"Ve~ Sadako-chan is so cute!" Feliciano exclaimed. Sadako blushed.

"I told you not do that!" Kiku stammered. Sadako laughed while Feliciano grinned. The day continued like this for a few hours then Feliciano decided to go back to Kiku's home. He gave Sadako a hug and kissed her on the cheek.

"I'll see you later," He promised. "And I'll bring Doitsu next time!" Sadako smiled and waved at the Italian.

"Why does he call the other man Doitsu?" She asked.

"He is from Germany, it's just a nickname," Kiku stated. He walked over to the window and looked out into the bight sky. "How many canes do you have completed?"

"I almost have six-hundred and twenty," She exclaimed happily. Kiku felt tears come to his eyes, he knew she wouldn't get one-thousand.

"Over halfway there," He stated. "Don't give up. You will get that wish and get better." Sadako started to work on the cranes with the small amount of paper she had left.

Kiku got the news about a month later. Sadako had died on October 25, just ten days after he and Feliciano had visited. After she died, Kiku was walking around and saw some children passing out letters to get donations for a memorial statue for her and all the children affected by the bombs. He donated as mush money as he could.

In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was unveiled in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also called the Genbaku Dome. At the foot of the statue is a plaque that reads:

_"This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth."_

A/N

Sadako Sasaki (January 7, 1943 – October 25, 1955) was a Japanese girl who was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, near her home by Misasa Bridge in Hiroshima, Japan.

At the time of the explosion Sadako was at home, about one mile from Ground Zero. By November 1954, chicken pox had developed on her neck and behind her ears. Then in January 1955, purple spots had started to form on her legs. Subsequently, she was diagnosed with leukemia (her mother referred to it as "an atom bomb disease"). She was hospitalized on February 21, 1955, and given, at the most, a year to live.

On August 3, 1955, Sadako's best friend Chizuko Hamamoto came to the hospital to visit and cut a golden piece of paper into a square and folded it into a paper crane, in reference to the ancient Japanese story that promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane. A popular version of the story is that she fell short of her goal of folding 1,000 cranes, having folded only 644 before her death, and that her friends completed the 1,000 and buried them all with her.

Though she had plenty of free time during her days in the hospital to fold the cranes, she lacked paper. She would use medicine wrappings and whatever else she could scrounge up. This included going to other patients' rooms to ask to use the paper from their get-well presents. Chizuko would bring paper from school for Sadako to use.

During her time in the hospital her condition progressively worsened. Around mid-October her left leg became swollen and turned purple. After her family urged her to eat something, Sadako requested tea on rice and remarked "It's good." Those were her last words. With her family around her, Sadako died on the morning of October 25, 1955 at the age of 12.


End file.
